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819K views 11K replies 438 participants last post by  tomwas 
#1 ·
ive seen this type of thread on my toyota forum and it ends up being good.:thumbup:

anyways i'll start i guess, today i cleaned the wii out of my car and attempted to put my grilles in:)
 
#10,492 ·
So did you in fact need a different slip ring, and a different bracket for the turn signal? Because according to that write up our cars shouldn't need anything in addition to the steering wheel.
 
#10,495 ·
Me toooo, too much jelly, and not enough bread!

That steering wheel I'm pretty sure is a sex machine. Question... would you prefer the one you have, or one with the thick bulge at 10 and 2?
 
#10,499 · (Edited)
#10,505 ·
Hahaha, someone got the reference :freakdance:

Come on you know you want it Andrew.

Of the autotragic? :p

Seriously though, nice wheel :thumbup:
Thanks.

Sadly still an autotragic. Interesting note, when I bought the car it had the disgusting T handle, went to junk yard and pulled that handle (I think they call it pistol grip :dunno: ) from a 98 328, also the DEPO headlights, too bad it had LED tail lights, poor thing.

I would have done the manual swap by now but auto trans still has life and most (if not all) funds are for tuition. I have to find a better paying job, but first (and most importantly) learn to better manage my finances.

Soon very soon.
 
#10,500 ·
Alright, Andrew, now that I'm home and on a real computer, I can elaborate a bit on why I (basically) didn't have to do anything to adapt the Euro wheel to my car. As you said, the later non-M E36s shouldn't need to have anything swapped to install the steering wheel. That said, I bought my Euro wheel from someone who had it in his '98 M3, which does require replacing the steering column bracket and modifying the slipring wiring. Although the slipring on my original wheel was the exact same P/N as the one that came with my Euro wheel, the previous owner of the Euro wheel had adapted the slipring wiring to fit his '98 M3, which is different than my '98 328. So all I had to do was swap my existing slipring onto the new Euro wheel and I was done. The bracket he provided me was the exact same part number as what was already in my car (which makes sense), so it went unused, as did the "modified" slipring that came with the Euro wheel.
 
#10,502 · (Edited)
Oh, and regarding your question about the thumb rests... I guess it all comes down to personal preference, and I don't know what mine is. If I were buying "new" from eBay, it would be a tough call. On the one hand, for street driving I think I prefer to not have the thumb rests. For track driving, I might want them. One thing my driving instructor was telling me to do at my recent HPDE was to not wrap my thumbs around the wheel, and rather to keep them pointed upward so that I relax and don't give the wheel a death-grip. The thumb rests would probably help orient your thumbs for that purpose.

Kind of an alien concept to have your instructor tell you not to wrap your hands all the way around the steering wheel when you're doing 100mph+...
 
#10,504 ·
Kind of an alien concept to have your instructor tell you not to wrap your hands all the way around the steering wheel when you're doing 100mph+...
It's definitely freaky at first. Ive always tried to focus on a light touch on the steering wheel. Kind of hard when you're slamming on the brakes at 120, heal-toeing and chucking it into a corner. Really makes a difference though. Ive noticed in my videos that I do it right with one hand, but I have the other hand in the thumb grip to help move the wheel more lol.
 
#10,510 ·
Finished rebuilding, repairing and reupholstering my sunroof finally. I ended up re painting most of the steel tray that carries the fabric, but I am happy with the outcome. I can't wait to get it back in the car, hopefully this afternoon.

View attachment 467181

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I'm glad you posted this. How exactly did you re-attach the material to the sunroof? Did you somehow take the sunroof out of the cassette? Do you think this could be done without taking out the whole sunroof cassette out of the car?
 
#10,516 ·
Lifter blocks are the little plastic things that cause the sunroof to go up. Yes, the sunroof top can be removed, and the metal tray with the fabric on it can be as well. I think you would want to remove the cassette or have some incredible instructions.

So at a loss for any other things to do, I started recovering my door panel again. It turned out far better this time. I expect the next panel to be free from errors entirely.

Table Cutting board Wood


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#10,514 ·
Ordered yet another break light switch. Second one to go bad in three years...sheesh. :mad:
 
#10,519 ·
@dwonda: it is possible to remove the sunroof with the cassette in the car. I think if you want at the metal tray, the cassette will need to be removed.

I think the sunroof tray is more difficult than rebuilding the engine.

A big thanks to the folks at pelican parts. My parts arrived sooner than expected, and I got the sunroof back in the car.

Vehicle Car Trunk


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#10,520 ·
Ok so to be clear, the sunroof tray is what goes back and forth, and in order to take that out of the plastic cassette you have to take the whole cassette out of the car. I've been thinking of trying my luck at reattaching the material without taking anything out. How was that glue you used? How does it not bleed through the material?
 
#10,521 ·
That sunroof is one of the more difficult parts of the E36 that I've encountered. Even out of the car it was a giant PITA. I'm not looking forward to pulling the exterior sunroof for paint in the future.

The glue I used on that part was 3M super 77, and if you wait until the glue is fully tacky, it tends to reduce or remove the bleed through.

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#10,522 ·
So why didn't you get the sunroof painted when you had it out? I don't think it is totally necessary to take it out for paint, but I took mine out when I got it painted. So does the sunroof have 2 parts to it? An exterior and an interior? I'm forgetting because it has been so long since I've used my sunroof.
 
#10,523 ·
Oh I've got a fair amount of welding before I paint the thing. I'm not sure on what color it's going to be. The Brialliantrot will likely stick around.

The sliding roof panel has just the 2 hinge screws, and the 3 nuts accessible from the back. The panel with the fabric on it should be partially accessible.

After looking more closely, even if you were to work the middle tray forward, I do not think you can reach the rear 2 screws on either side.

Automotive exterior Bumper Auto part Trunk Metal


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#10,524 ·
That's cool. Well I definitely don't know how to rebuild an engine so this must be out of my league, I wonder if I asked BMW to reattach the material, how much they would charge me.
 
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